The future of service robotics is formulated at Óbuda University

2017. július 25.

24.07.2017., Budapest – for immediate release

ISO/IEC ROBOTICS STANDARDIZATION MEETING IN BUDAPEST

The Antal Bejczy Center for Intelligent Robotics (IROB) at Óbuda University is hosting the ISO/IEC Robotics meetings in Budapest. The participants of the 10-day-long meeting are experts of robotics, and are working towards new international standards in the field of service robotics.

The ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (International Electrotechnical Committee) are the world’s most influential standardization bodies. They initiated the TC 299 Robotics committee, which has 8 working groups (3 of those joint). These working groups are now elaborating new robotic standards during their meetings at Obuda University. The groups are responsible for the majority of international robotics standards, and devoted to promote the scientific and technological advancement of robotics through standardization. Service robotics is the new big, emerging domain, which needs standardization as well. Particular target areas include collaborative, nursing, rehabilitation and surgery robotics. In the latter two fields, the experts are now finalizing the standards documents.

Robots are already applied to numerous fields, continuously expanding, and new markets and applications are steadily growing, such as household robots and personal assistants. Within these domains, the robots need to get along in a complex, human-centered environment, therefore it has to possess a higher degree of autonomy. Basic safety standards are badly needed to adopt to the advanced autonomous systems. With the increasing usage of robots, the need for standardized solutions has intensified. The process of standardization is a complicated one, where international experts from the Academia, Industry and Government are working together towards clear targets. These meetings also provide an excellent opportunity to peek into the upcoming standardization environment of the domain, and to network with the senior experts. Hungary has been an active member in these working groups via the Hungarian Standards Institution (MSZT, http://mszt.hu).

The ISO/IEC Standardization Meeting is hosted by the University Research, Innovation and Service Center (EKIK, http://ekik.uni-obuda.hu/); wherein the Antal Bejczy Center for Intelligent Robotics (http://irob.uni-obuda.hu/) is a leading research division of EKIK. There are almost 100 international experts from 17 countries attending the Budapest event. Accredited delegates of their national standardization bodies, accompanied by observers to the committees. Following a great tradition, the last day of the program (28.07.2017) is a Medical Robotics Workshop in the main building of Óbuda University, where invited experts deliver keynote talks regarding the current achievements and upcoming research and development results in the domain. The workshop is open to the public.

Beyond bearing the technical support of Óbuda University, the event benefits from the generous support of the Austrian Center for Medical Innovation Technology (ACMIT, www.acmit.at) and the Óbuda University Students’ Union (HÖK).